Maryland Food Bank Marks 40th Anniversary, Hunger Action Month

The food bank serves about 1,000 pantries, soup kitchen and other agencies that feed the hungry.

Carmen Del Guercio, President and CEO of the Maryland Food Bank, tells WBAL NewsRadio there are an estimated 650,000 people in Maryland who are food insecure. He says these are people who have jobs, but do not make enough to feed their families. Yet they earn too much to get any government assistance.

Del Guercio says there is always the need for donations for non-perishable food, and money, as well as volunteers, to pack food. He says there are 11,000 volunteers who help the Maryland Food Bank every year.

Del Guerico says the food bank buys 25 percent of the food that it gives to the needy, noting a dollar donation can buy three meals.

He says there are food drives at area supermarkets, and there will be the Food and Funds Drives with the Baltimore Ravens at the December 1 game with the San Francisco 49ers. WBAL will be a co-sponsor of that food drive.

To mark the 40th anniversary, the Maryland Food Bank is launching the “It Takes More” campaign.